Saturday, March 13, 2010

Trail Riding On Our Turf

Finally. I know, this post is pretty much two weeks overdue. But, I'm trying. So, hold on to your hats, this is going to be a long one.

Can you guess who's who?

After days and nights of rain, our planned ride day dawned bright, beautiful and clear. Cowboy H and I got out to our ranch fairly early and brought our ponies in from pasture, gave them each a bucket of grain, tacked up and waited. The girls waited patiently too. It was a sight we'll never see again. Lastly, Cowboy H put the finishing touches on his outfit.

By now, those of you who follow Jesses Desert Rose should know that EVERY ride is an excuse to get dressed to the nines, with matching tack as well. Well, a handful of years ago, the DR bought this pink striped shirt for Cowboy H. Every time we ride with DR, Cowboy H tries to remember to wear this shirt.

However, this time around, we added the tie. Yes, its pink and yes, its paisley. I don't know about anyone else, but I love a man in pink. Mmmmmm...

Anyway.

Soon, we heard the diesel truck rumbling down the drive. Once parked, there was much commotion as the handsome Crow was unloaded and fawned over, mimosas were handed out, magazines were presented and horses settled. Before too long, the mimosas were gone and we were in our saddles.

We rode out from our ranch, into the cow pastures and up the hill I broke my arm on. Just before dropping down into the state park, we stopped for the first photo op.

Wow, we were a colorful group! Also, I would like to mention that this photo is SOOC. I swear! I still can't believe how vibrant the colors are!

We rode into the state park on a trail that Cowboy H, the ranch girls, and I had made ourselves. It was a muddy, mucky, sloshy mess. The entire time, our ponies were ankle deep in mud or over-saturated soil. The ground sunk about four inches with every step. We crossed water about five times, none of them easy ones. Honestly, we should not have gone out that day, the ground was so bad, but that wasn't discovered until about 30 minutes into the ride. The first 40 minutes really were not that fun.

We finally made it to the actual state park trails and had to make our first pit stop. And yes, the DR was caught on her own two feet again.

Look at that strut!

I'm sorry guys. I just can't help myself.

Poor Cowboy H got stuck holding three horses!

Of course, we also took this opportunity to top off our glasses. Thanks Bossman!

And, we were off again.

Yes, the Bossman provides us with REAL glasses out on the trail!

The day was so beautiful we had to stop to take lots of photos.

Or, just take in the view.

We continued up a long hill, and were able to divert our attentions from the ground since the footing was a lot better. Much story-telling ensued.

Once we got to the top, we filled up our glasses, err I mean, let our horses blow a bit.

Please forgive me. Just look at him!

The ponies also got their fair share of trail treats. It was a lot of work just to keep their heads above their knees!

But can you blame them?

Eventually we worked our way down into the main area of the camp, the same place we started out when we gathered cows last time. We got stopped by a park ranger, because well, those dang cows were out again, and she wanted to make sure we knew where those dang cows were (apparently she was tracking them). Uh, cows? Lady, we're just here to ride. Then we were informed that the state park was actually closed to the public, but since we were "here for the cows" she'd let us slide. Aww, thanks. So, we pretended to look for cows. (None were spotted.)

Before long, we were at our lunch spot! The state park has a horse camping ground complete with pipe stalls, porta-potties and picnic tables.

And lunch was served!

Side Note: The Bossman supplies everyone with NEW wine glasses for lunch, because serving wine in the same glasses your champagne was in is just not acceptable.

We definitely took our time during lunch, telling more stories and finishing off two bottles of wine between the five of us. We also decided to head back home through the front entrance of the park and along the city streets. We really didn't want to slop through all the mud we had come in through.

If this doesn't show how small Bella was, I don't know what would.

Riding through the streets was not ideal, but also pretty uneventful with our group. If nothing else, it was a good experience for all the horses.

From there we were back at the ranch. All in all we were out on trail for about six hours, including the one hour lunch break. It was a really great ride, minus all the mud. Maybe in a couple months time, we can do it again?!?!

12 comments:

What fun! We use to go "out west" Medora and once to Idaho -- it was a blast! Looks like you have a wonderful fun group -- I traveled over to Desert Rose's blog. Fun... fun....I love the idea that you guys get "dressed" - it is so cute!

You bet! I'd love to come with DR and Bossman and ride! We should put together a ride sometime. Maybe when I'm in Palm Desert next season? We'll be staying there the whole time. We'll have to plan one.

The open blue sky makes for such beautiful photographs there. I feel like I never get out of the trees or have enough light around here!Looks like a great ride despite the mud...everyone was dressed to the 9's! ;)

Seriously, are you sure you were all safe to ride after all that libation! Good thing you didn't get pulled over be the mounted police. Your pictures were gorgeous, all that blue and green together, it's mostly gray skies around here yet. It looks like a nice peaceful FLAT ride that I would like to go on some day, maybe!

I'd love to join you guys for a ride, but I'm such a lightweight. You guys drink too much on your rides. lol! You're lucky the State Park folks didn't catch ya. In most state parks it's illegal to drink alcohol. Your views were gorgeous, though. Wow! And everything was so bright green! It's snowing here right now and we've already got over 7" on the ground. And if it wasn't snowing it would just be brown everywhere. No grass to be seen!

And I still don't see that Cowboy H is too tall for his mount. Yeh, he's a little long in the upper torso, and the horse has a fairly short neck, but if you cover his upper body and just look at his legs, he's just fine on her. His legs aren't too long. They don't even go past her knees.She's such a good mare, too. I'm almost 6' tall and I'd be happy to ride her. My good friend, Dan owns an Icelandic gelding and he's 5'11. His gelding is just shy of 14hh. And he looks just fine on his stocky boy. Abd wow...that gelding sure can tolt like the wind!

OMG that is hilarious!! I want to know how the heck he carried all of those glasses and wine with nothing breaking LOL!!! What a blast! I wish I was close to you cause I would surely come on a ride! The scenery is just gorgeous!! And I'm okay with lots of pics of the Hubby, your newlyweds so it's allowed ;) It makes for a GOOD marriage to find your other so stinkin adorable!!

Oh and I 2nd that vote for giving someone the camera to take a shot of you!!